New Video Over California May Show Columbia Shuttle Debris

KRON San Francisco ^ | February 6, 2003

[Shermy]

FAIRFIELD (KRON) -- New video that KRON 4 has obtained from a photographer in Fairfield shows possible debris breaking off of the shuttle Columbia as it flew over California just minutes before losing contact with NASA.

The focus of this investigation is a very faint glitter on this tape. It looks as if a spec or two falls off the back of the shuttle as it was traveling at about 17,000 miles an hour overhead.

If you watch closely, you can see a few little dim specs. Is it anything? It's a good question.

We enhanced the video at the moment that came off, and can you see that it's just that little spec that we're interested in right now, just that little bit of debris from the back of the shuttle.

We really have no idea what it is. We have no doubt, though, that NASA will be interested in looking at it.

When the videotape was shot from Fairfield, Lionel Machado said the shuttle at that time appeared perfectly normal.

"It was a beautiful day, I could see it very well and we could see the trail behind it above our house," says Machado, who shot the video. "Then as it got maybe directly North, it went off that direction and then disappeared in the North/Northeast."

KRON 4 Science Editor Brian Hackney also talked with a local expert about what the possible debris was.

"It's hard to tell what it is, but I don't believe it's an artifact of the camera," says Buddy Nelson, a Space and Science Expert in Fremont who studied the video this afternoon. "I think we are seeing something coming off the back of the orbiter, possibly a piece of the structure itself or potentially a natural occurrence of plasma breaking up behind the shuttle."

"You don't think it's ice?"

"No, I don't. That would dissipate in the vacuum of space."

"What are the chances that whatever that thing is survived to the ground, to become debris?"

"Reasonably small," says Nelson. "We're talking 47 miles up. It's going very fast. If it's small, it will continue to burn. Because it's along the trajectory path, it's going to burn up."

"This is something NASA will be interested in?"

"Absolutely. They'll look at the timing of these two occurrences. They'll look at the telemetry. They will see if there's any correlation between the movement on the flight surfaces and these two events."

"It's also curious at the moment that that was taken, about 9 or 8 minutes before the hour of 6:00 that morning was the very moment the things began to go wrong on the shuttle."

KRON 4 is working on this developing story and will have more details tonight starting on KRON 4 News at 4pm.

[Shermy]

[Brad’s Gramma]

Bump for later

[discostu]

Seems to me there are a lot of people obsessed with proving the shuttle started falling apart over CA. Why? Is there some sort of federal grant I haven't heard of that gives the state where a shuttle disaster started a bunch of money? Some parts fell in my home state of AZ, does that make us more worthy?

[HighWheeler]

Watch the Video

[Shermy]

BTW, 3 videos linked there. I can only get "Interview with Photographer" to work.

[mewzilla]

Knowing what went first and where could provide an essential clue to learning what went wrong and why.

[HighWheeler]

The parts that fell off first will likely be the parts that were part of or positioned near the root of the cause. Finding these parts is important.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Aliens...

[HighWheeler]

Mexico or France?

[Shermy]

Ping.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Green, one eyed.

[discostu]

But that doesn't seem to me what people are looking for. It's nothing but the ubiquitous "parts" "seen" in a video. I understand the importance of finding and identifying the first chunk, and I'm sure the search will go into the Pacific ocean just in case. I just think it's weird that everytime one CA video get the keibosh another pops up. Seems like some people in CA are looking for a grim peg to hang their hat off of (CA: Where the Columbia first started disintigrating).

Of course this could all just be because I'm in a foul mood lately.

[Shermy]

This would be the farthest-west video.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

CA: Where the Columbia first started disintigrating.

And the state with a deficit higher than ALL other 49 states... combined. Thank you Grey-out Davis. Hopefully that will help cheer you up.

[AmericaUnited]

In reality a gnat walking across the lens...

[DoughtyOne]

At the tale end of yesterday's news conference with Ron Dettemore, a reporter stated that a tile holder was found in northern California. Dettemore did not correct him. Evidently the shuttle is confirmed to have been breaking up over the state.

This isn't a claim that anyone relishes. The higher the breakup occurred, the less the effects of the atmosphere were on the breakup. Was something so seriously wrong that hardly any resistance was needed to start the breakup?

I don't know about you, but this interest me a lot.

[mewzilla]

No, you're right. There are some real ghouls out there. But for the folks who are investigating the accident, finding what came off over CA would be a big help. I was thinking today that folks who travel out west on airliners might be able to keep their eyes peeled for debris, especially on take-off and approach. On good weather days you can see forever.

[Alberta's Child]

I may be wrong about this, but this looks like the video that was taken by those kids in New Mexico that morning. Are you sure this was from California?

[blam]

"I may be wrong about this, but this looks like the video that was taken by those kids in New Mexico that morning. Are you sure this was from California?"

I understand them to say that they were in Arizona but that the shuttle is still over California.

[discostu]

Well given where the breakup occured the debris is going to be scattered around the planet (unfortunately a lot of the shuttle became the infamous space junk that takes a very long time to fall to earth). No. Cal isn't out of the question and it might not be an early piece.

I find it interesting, but this "I've got video of it breaking over CA" is more psychologically interesting to me.